Supporting pad for a pallet

ABSTRACT

A pad for supporting a pallet, the pad comprising a containerlike shell, a compression-resistant composite material disposed within the shell, which is comprised of a rigid paperboard embedded into a foamed urethane plastic, the material filling at least a portion of the shell and coextensive with the depth of the shell, providing a pallet support.

Unlted States Patent 1151 3,697,029 Lauffer 5] Oct. 10, 1972 [54] SUPPORTING PAD FOR A PALLET 3,419,455 12/1968 Roberts ..l6 [l7 3 446 692 5/1969 Tumbull 161/69 2lt.FredE.uff,Tl, [7 2,744,042 5/1956 Pace ..156/79 x [73] Assignee: Owens-Illinois, Inc. 2,544,657 3/ 1951 Cushman ..108/53 3,257,260 6/1966 Morgan ..l6l/69 [22] 1970 3,495,756 2/1970 Achermann 61 al. ....220/63 x 211 Appl. No.: 100,914

Primary Examiner-Robert F. Burnett Assistant Examiner-Henry F. Epstein 52 us. (:1. ..248/l88.8, 108/51, 161/160, R and E J. Bone,

220/9 F, 229/14 C, 248/350 {51] llll. Cl. ..B65d 19/44 57 ABSTRACT 58 FieldofSearch ....156/79, 197, 205,210; 161/7,

161/68, 69, 121, 123, 133-137, 159, 160, A P? k" 6| I90 108/53 220/63 R 9 contalner-llke shell, a compression-reslstant composne material disposed within the shell, which is comprised 248/22 206,46 229/14 C of a rigid paperboard embedded into a foamed urethane plastic, the material filling at least a portion [56] Rfmms c'ted 6f the 811611 and COeXKCIlSiVB with the depth of IhC UNITED STATES PATENTS shell, providing a Pallet pp 2,06l,569 11/1936 Fischer ..l6l/68 X 1 Claim, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTEDum 10 I972 SHEET 2 0F 2 INVENTOR.

5.? HOLLER SUPPORTING PAD FOR A PALLET BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION in a foamed polyurethane plastic which at least partially fills portions of the shell to the depth of the shell. The pad may be separate or integrally formed with the pallet, and a plurality of pads are used in supporting a pallet.

2. Description of the Prior Art The invention is an improved pad structure for a load-carrying unit such as a pallet. Pallets are supported in spaced relationship from a floor or other supporting surface, permitting the entry of the lifts of a fork lift. Prior art pallets have been supported on skids, blocks, and various appendages of the pallet structure.

A pallet support is disclosed in US. Pat. No. 3,495,756, issued Feb. 1970.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is a support for a pallet; the support has a shell of a high-density plastic formed in any desired configuration, and a composite material within the shell, the composite acting as a compression-resistant material which supports a loaded pallet.

An object of the invention is to provide an easilyforrned, light-weight pallet support having a waterproof outer shell made of a polyethylene material and a weight-bearing compression-resistant material comprising a foamed polyurethane and a plurality of corrugated paperboard sheets positioned within the shell. The pad of this invention comprises an easily-formed shell, a compression-resistant material within the shell, which has a very high weight-bearing capacity in comparison with its density, is easily formed into any desired shell configuration, and may be formed integrally with the pallet structure, if desired.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pad of this invention, partially sectioned.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of this invention, showing the compression-resistant composite with a partial section of the pad.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS This invention is an improved pad for supporting pallets. This preferred form of the invention is indicated by reference numerals in FIG. 1. The pad 10 is comprised of a container-like shell ll formed from a highdensity plastic and a compression-resistant composite l3, placed within the shell 11. Shell 11 has shell liner l2, aligned with and in contact with portions of the inner surface of the shell, and the liner I2 partially fills the shell. A portion, or all of the space 16 remaining within the shell is filled with the compression-resistant composite 13.

The compression-resistant composite 13 is comtending the depth of the shell. The space 16 within the pad is at least partially filled with the compression-resistant composite 13.

The container-like shell 11 is formed from a highdensity, heat and pressure-deformable polyethylene plastic. The shell 11 may be formed integrally with a major structure of a pallet or may be formed as a 0 separate entity and attached to the pallet.

The shell 11, shell liner l2, and the rigid compression-resistant composite 13 provide a pad 10 having high compression-resistance per unit of square area of bottom area of the pad.

The shell structure can be formed as an integral part of a pallet enclosure such as the pallet described in copending application, Ser. No. 74,006, filed 9-21-70, by H. L. Arcocha, P. W. Dullabaun, and Fred E. Lauffer, the inventors herein. The shell may be made a part of the pallet by other suitable means such as adhering the top of the compression-resistant composite 13 to the pallet, using a surplus of foam in the shell 11.

In another embodiment, a center space 16 is formed by placing therein the rigid material 14 so as to fill only a portion of the shell along its inner walls. The remainder of the shell space is filled with a polyurethane foam if desired.

In another embodiment of this invention, shell 1 1 has inner walls lined with a polyurethane foam shell liner 15, extending the depth of the walls.

The remaining space 16 may be filled with a rigid material and foamed urethane only if the compressionresistance need be increased.

The term urethane" as used herein covers a commercially available product which is applied to the rigid material by a commercial applicator.

A urethane is a product of a chemical reaction between an isocyanate (R-N-C-O-) and an alcohol (R- OH). The term polyurethane" refers to molecular polymer products with repeating urethane linkage RNl-lCO and hence, other such reaction products are comprehended within the term urethane."

The term polyurethane" is commercially applied to such other hybrids reaction products as well as to longchain polymers composed only of isocyanates and hydroxyl reaction products.

The term plastic," as used herein, comprehends within the definition such reaction products as well as other foamable plastic materials which are compression-resistant when hardened.

What is claimed is:

l. A pad for supporting a pallet, said pad comprising:

a. a container-like shell, formed of a high-density polyethylene plastic;

b. a polyurethane shell liner which is aligned with and in contact with the inner surface of the shell;

c. a compression-resistant composite, comprising foamed polyurethane plastic within the shell liner and a plurality of corrugated paperboard shells embedded within the foamed plastic;

d. the polyurethane foam filling the shell liner coextensive with the depth thereof, the shell liner and the corrugated paperboard sheets in a side-by-side relationship.

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